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Hymn Blog - November 27, 2011
November 27, 2011 – Advent 1
VU 2 – Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus. The text is by Charles Wesley, the poet of the Wesleyan revival, author of over 6500 hymn texts. This hymn was published in Hymns for the Nativity of Our Lord (1744), and intended as a Christmas Hymn, but its theme of waiting for the redeemer makes it especially suitable for Advent. The tune, STUTTGART, is from the Lutheran Psalmodia Sacra (1715, Gotha, Germany) and is attributed to C. F. Witt.
VU 7 – Hope Is a Star. Singing this hymn during the lighting of the advent candles has become a tradition at TSP. We sing the first stanza today, and add a stanza each week throughout Advent. The text is by Brian Wren, and was written in 1985 for Hyde Park United Methodist Church in Chicago. The lovely setting, MOON BEAMS, was composed by Joan Collier Fogg in 1987.
MV 11 – Come, Come Emmanuel. Our children’s hymn and prayer response is this simple refrain, whose words and music are by Fr. Jim Chepponis, a priest of the Pittsburgh Diocese, ordained in 1985. He received his bachelor's degree in music from St. Fidelis College/Slippery Rock University, with a major in organ and a minor in voice. Fr. Chepponis received a Master of Divinity and Master of Arts in Systematic Theology from Mount St. Mary's Seminary, Emmitsburg, Maryland. He has served the Pittsburgh diocese as Director of the Office of Music Ministry, and his work has included providing music for all diocesan liturgies, directing the Diocesan Choir, coordinating the Pittsburgh chapter for the National Association of Pastoral Musicians and the Director of Music Ministries division, and serving as music resource person for parishes throughout the Pittsburgh Diocese.
MV 159 – In Star and Crescent. This is a beautiful interfaith hymn. The text, with its stunning imagery, is by Mary Louise Bringle of Brevard College in Brevard, NC, where she is Professor of Philosophy, Religion, and French, and chair of the Humanities Division. A teacher at heart and a theologian by training (with a Ph.D. from Emory University and an assortment of publications in pastoral theology), she turned her hand to hymn text writing at the turn of the millennium. Since 2000, she has won a number of hymn writing competitions, been featured as an “emerging text writer” by The Hymn Society in the US and Canada, and had her first single-author collection (Joy and Wonder, Love and Longing) published by GIA, for whom she is now translating Spanish language hymns into English. She is a past president of The Hymn Society. The tune, AMITY, is by Jane Best, a church musician at All Saints Anglican Church in Gore Bay, Ontario, on Manitoulin Island. She has a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Toronto and many years' experience leading music in United and Anglican churches.
VU 711 – Sleepers Wake. Philipp Nicolai, a Lutheran pastor in Westphalia, wrote this hymn during the plague of 1596-97 which claimed some 1,300 lives in his parish. Turning from the constant tragedies and frequent funerals, he meditated on “the noble, sublime doctrine of eternal life obtained through the blood of Christ. This I allowed to dwell in my heart day and night and searched the scriptures as to what they revealed on this matter.” The English translation was prepared for The Hymn Book (1971) by Professor Jay Macpherson of Victoria University, University of Toronto. The chorale tune, WACHET AUF is attributed to Philipp Nicolai, and was used by J.S. Bach in his Cantata No. 140 of the same name.
VU 2 – Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus. The text is by Charles Wesley, the poet of the Wesleyan revival, author of over 6500 hymn texts. This hymn was published in Hymns for the Nativity of Our Lord (1744), and intended as a Christmas Hymn, but its theme of waiting for the redeemer makes it especially suitable for Advent. The tune, STUTTGART, is from the Lutheran Psalmodia Sacra (1715, Gotha, Germany) and is attributed to C. F. Witt.
VU 7 – Hope Is a Star. Singing this hymn during the lighting of the advent candles has become a tradition at TSP. We sing the first stanza today, and add a stanza each week throughout Advent. The text is by Brian Wren, and was written in 1985 for Hyde Park United Methodist Church in Chicago. The lovely setting, MOON BEAMS, was composed by Joan Collier Fogg in 1987.
MV 11 – Come, Come Emmanuel. Our children’s hymn and prayer response is this simple refrain, whose words and music are by Fr. Jim Chepponis, a priest of the Pittsburgh Diocese, ordained in 1985. He received his bachelor's degree in music from St. Fidelis College/Slippery Rock University, with a major in organ and a minor in voice. Fr. Chepponis received a Master of Divinity and Master of Arts in Systematic Theology from Mount St. Mary's Seminary, Emmitsburg, Maryland. He has served the Pittsburgh diocese as Director of the Office of Music Ministry, and his work has included providing music for all diocesan liturgies, directing the Diocesan Choir, coordinating the Pittsburgh chapter for the National Association of Pastoral Musicians and the Director of Music Ministries division, and serving as music resource person for parishes throughout the Pittsburgh Diocese.
MV 159 – In Star and Crescent. This is a beautiful interfaith hymn. The text, with its stunning imagery, is by Mary Louise Bringle of Brevard College in Brevard, NC, where she is Professor of Philosophy, Religion, and French, and chair of the Humanities Division. A teacher at heart and a theologian by training (with a Ph.D. from Emory University and an assortment of publications in pastoral theology), she turned her hand to hymn text writing at the turn of the millennium. Since 2000, she has won a number of hymn writing competitions, been featured as an “emerging text writer” by The Hymn Society in the US and Canada, and had her first single-author collection (Joy and Wonder, Love and Longing) published by GIA, for whom she is now translating Spanish language hymns into English. She is a past president of The Hymn Society. The tune, AMITY, is by Jane Best, a church musician at All Saints Anglican Church in Gore Bay, Ontario, on Manitoulin Island. She has a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Toronto and many years' experience leading music in United and Anglican churches.
VU 711 – Sleepers Wake. Philipp Nicolai, a Lutheran pastor in Westphalia, wrote this hymn during the plague of 1596-97 which claimed some 1,300 lives in his parish. Turning from the constant tragedies and frequent funerals, he meditated on “the noble, sublime doctrine of eternal life obtained through the blood of Christ. This I allowed to dwell in my heart day and night and searched the scriptures as to what they revealed on this matter.” The English translation was prepared for The Hymn Book (1971) by Professor Jay Macpherson of Victoria University, University of Toronto. The chorale tune, WACHET AUF is attributed to Philipp Nicolai, and was used by J.S. Bach in his Cantata No. 140 of the same name.
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